Lessons In Truth - Lesson 9 - Annotation 8
Explain the importance of reliance on the indwelling Christ Spirit rather than relying wholly on external helps.
8. It is vitally important that we learn to rely on the indwelling Christ Spirit for our revelations. In no other way can our full spiritual unfoldment take place that will make us a spiritual master in our everyday living.
The revelation of Truth comes from the Christ Spirit, or God Presence within, and cannot come from any person or anything in the outer. This point was brought out in Lessons in Truth Lesson 3 Annotation 7, "Thinking." The value of books and teachers in our soul growth lies in the fact that they serve as guides to teach us laws and rules. However, we must come to the point where we do not look on them as sources of Truth, but look to Spirit only. Once we have come to depend on revelation from within ourselves, our appreciation of books and teachers is increased. We recognize the importance of books and teachers but we get the conviction that the Truth they present comes from the one source -- God.
The only place that we can turn to for our revelations of Truth is the "secret place of the Most High" within ourselves. We are grateful for all external helps that have placed our feet firmly on the path which leads us to this "secret place," whether they be books, teachers, symbols, and even our outer experiences. No true teacher wants a student to rely wholly on him, but ever turns that one toward attaining knowledge of the indwelling Spirit within himself. The urge within a person to write a book, that will be helpful to others seeking the pathway of Truth, has come primarily from God. But such a book fails in its true purpose if it does not cause the reader to search within for the Spirit of Truth that shall "guide . . . into all the truth" (John 16:13).
A person who relies wholly on external helps for unfoldment is immature; he is not a strong, reliant, effective individual. He is like a too dependent child who looks to his mother or to other adults to do for him what he should do for himself. There is a difference between relying wholly on external helps and achieving a balance between the inner and the outer worlds. None of us would reject all the wonderful help that comes to us in the visible world -- the instruction from books and teachers, our associations with other persons, and through our work, no matter what it may be. When we proceed from within outward, relying primarily on the intuitive voice of God within us, we are able to relate everything in us and in our world to Spirit. We see everything in its right relation. If we need help in what seems a wholly external matter, we go direct to the Christ Spirit within us and ask for light and guidance. Then whatever we do in the outer, whatever help is offered us externally, will be right and will bring about perfect results.
The changes that take place in our life through dependence on the indwelling Christ Spirit will show forth in every aspect of our experience. Relationships take on new meaning; well-being in body and affairs becomes an actuality; there is an ever-increasing sense of accomplishment and fulfillment.
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Preceding Entry: What must be our desire concerning the words of Truth that we speak?
Following Entry: For what purpose did man come into the world?
